Desausoi stressed that financial institutions must take all steps to secure their local environment, whilst underling the need for industry cooperation, “The growing threat of cyberattacks has never been more pressing, SWIFT customers are responsible for the security of their own environments; but the security of the industry as a whole is a shared responsibility requiring full collaboration within financial services.”

The growing threat of cyberattacks has never been more pressing, SWIFT customers are responsible for the security of their own environments; but the security of the industry as a whole is a shared responsibility requiring full collaboration within financial services.

Alain Desausoi, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), SWIFT

As an example of industry cooperation, Desausoi pointed to the immediate need for information sharing to meet the cyber challenge, “Having accurate, up to date information on relevant cyber threats is critical, and we are supporting greater levels of intelligence sharing across the global community and SWIFT’s CSP will drive greater exchange of cyber threat information between banks and SWIFT.”

Speaking alongside experts from Templar Executives, City of London Police and the National Cyber Crime Unit, Desausoi also explained how deploying red teams to test and assess your systems is crucial to identifying vulnerabilities and improving security within organisations.